Schorty's reviews

We got the Winter Hibernation Package at this Orient-Express hotel. This property previously belonged to Laura Ashley (the English interior designer) ‘s husband. It is decorated in Ashley’s beautiful English style with striped wallpaper for bedrooms, antique furnishings and four-post beds. The service was to the detail. We had hot tea from breakfast out of a silver tea decanter that kept the tea hot for so long we couldn’t believe it. The bathrooms were luxurious. The food was southern with a zing. I remember they served a very stinky blue cheese in a delicate salad in the restaurant and grits for breakfast. Plus, they had afternoon tea for anyone interested. We still dream about being able to go back to Keswick after three years as we have never stayed in any hotel comparable to it since. And we have hotel-ed a lot!

Tom and Debra was practically how my husband and I met. We love their dancing and their humor. They have taught so many couples to swing that they have lost count. They also take note about who among their students get hitched after taking their swing classes. Ironically, Tom is a divorce lawyer. We were able to prepare for the wedding dance by using simple routines we learned under Tom and Debra’s instruction. Although we didn’t think we did anything special, we did get wows from the guests at our wedding dance. I highly recommend Tom and Debra for weddings and definitely for a fun time dancing (or trying to).

We have been married three years and still use Amphora for special occasion cakes. They are the best deal there is. Service wise, they were great. We did not have to worry about cake delivery as it was in the restaurant at the appointed time. Very much like Charm City Cakes (from FoodNetwork’s Ace of Cake’s) they can customize your cakes to your desire but without the wait list and $500 minimum. Our wedding cake of three gorgeous decorated tiers cost $350 and was so delicious! Our cake flavor was Grand Marnier. Amphora has so many flavors and designs to choose from that your cake tasting appointment will be the best part of planning for the wedding.

This was one of the best decisions we made regarding our wedding reception. At the time we used 2941, they were a fledgling outfit catering at $35/head for an extraordinary lunch that ended on a sweet note of cotton candy. Now they are one of the hottest restaurants in Washington DC. Everyone without exception among our friends and family loved the food. The venue, a corporate office-turned-restaurant needed a little bit of seat planning. We had a spill-over room for kids (which we did not like). Also, they numbered the tables different than what we had expected. Make sure they know that your important guests (seated closer to the bride and groom) are in the lower numbers not the higher numbers. For example: Table 1 (Bride & Groom), Table 2 (Bride & Groom’s parents). We had the more important people sitting at the tables farther away from us. Nevertheless, we would still have our reception here if we could do it over again.

We got the cheapest photo package since we knew a lot of our friends would be taking pictures. Our couple shots were nice but there were a lot of random shots among the guests that were trying to be candid but were leaning toward being non-professional. Shortly after the best man spoke, Mr. Fletcher (the photographer) had to leave for another engagement. Nevertheless, I feel we got what we paid for and know better not to recommend him for future weddings. In fairness, I did like that we got to keep a CD of all the shots he took, not just the ones he printed for us. Also, Mr. Fletcher is an excellent musician and I can bet Washington’s Best does its best at wedding music more than photos.

If we made one bad decision in the many we made for our wedding, Petals Edge was it. I should have known from the moment we walked into their offices. First we had a hard time finding their office (which was a home, a very cluttered home). Next, I felt very much arm-twisted into buying certain in-season flowers. I later found out they were overpriced. Nevertheless, I agreed to ordering them and gave her one half of the total amount. I said I would deliver the second-half of the payment on the day of the wedding. The manager agreed to this. On the day of the wedding, we discover she was threatening not to deliver the flowers as she had not received the second-half of the payment. (Not even our caterer, who we paid after the wedding treated us like this! As if we were not going to pay her!) In the end the flowers did arrive and they were beautiful, but I will never use Petals Edge again.

This Catholic Church was at the time of our wedding still under construction. However, it was the coziest, most solemn place for us to be wed at. Today, the chapel is filled with beautiful restored stained glass windows, has great acoustics and is still very peaceful. It’s location in historic Embassy Row/Dupont Circle makes it very historic. It also happens to be a private chapel for the Archbishop of Washington DC.

The requirements for celebrating a marriage here would be either the groom or the bride need to be Catholic and must reside in the Archdiocese of Washington DC or be a parishioner of this parish (which serves primarily a Hispanic population in DC).

Sandra, a senior hairstylist at Tigani did my hair for the wedding. She went all out with what she felt was her best and I greatly appreciated her for it. However, I think if I had a better knowledge of Spanish I would have like to explain what “look” I would have liked better. I think I had a very Hispanic hairstyle with a lot of curls and an updo that made me look a bit older than I was. Nevertheless, I would still highly recommend her to Spanish speakers as she is very amiable and so willing to please her clients.

I love my engagement ring from Blue Nile because it is a good quality stone and setting and yet is not overpriced like many local jewelers. They also have a very helpful online tool (which you look at after you’ve been proposed to) to help you figure out just how much the one you got was worth. Seriously, it was very educational going to their website and learning about the ring. I was not involved in the picking out of the engagement ring but only of the wedding bands. In the latter, the ease of shipment and online ordering also made this an A-plus vendor in my books.

Review: We had been to three tuxedo places and K&G (a tuxedo warehouse). Comparatively, Master’s Tuxedo has good service. The people who fitted the groom’s party were very patient and not pushy. Their stock however, was limited. It was good quality though. It also had pretty much the same deals as most other tux joints. For instance, Master’s deal was for every fourth tux you got one free. This is the same at Men’s Warehouse. Having learned from this, I would suggest buying a tux for the groom at K&G for posterity and then renting for the rest of your party. We discovered that in the three years of marriage we needed a tux three other times. That would have saved us lots if we had bought one at the wedding.